Originally posted posted on November 12, 2005.

This is the recipe I use for banana bread. I’ve always loved banana bread, especially with walnuts. But the walnuts are optional if you have a nut allergy. As usual I used organic ingredients (bananas, eggs, vanilla, walnuts) where possible, but you can use non-organic stuff and make it cheaper.

I usually try to avoid using specialized gadgets for the web recipes, but using a hand mixer makes some of this a bit easier than mixing by hand.

Basic Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 300° (use an oven thermometer!)
2. Mash ripe bananas in a large mixing bowl.
3. Mix in beaten eggs with a hand mixer until blended.
4. Add sugar in gradually while beating with hand mixer.
5. Add in shortening (in small chunks) and vanilla, and beat some more with hand mixer.
6. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt, then blend into batter.
7. Chop walnuts up some and mix into batter by hand.
8. Bake 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours at 300°.

Now onto the pictures for the rest!

Our basic ingredients are some very ripe bananas, all-purpose flour, baking soda, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla extract, shortening and walnuts.

Note: I bought some organic bananas fresh (the 3 were about ¾ pound) and let them sit on a shelf in my kitchen for about 7 days to let them get as “ripe” as you see here..

To start peel the bananas, break them into smaller chunks, and mash them up in a mixing bowl with a potato masher.

Beat the 2 eggs and add them to the mashed bananas, then beat some with your hand mixer.

Add the 1 ¼ cups of sugar to the mix, and beat some more with the hand mixer.

Then add in the ½ cup of shortening and 1 ½ tsp of vanilla extract, and beat some more with the hand mixer. (Your arm would be pretty tired by now mixing by hand, heh..)

In another bowl whisk together the 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking soda and ½ tsp of salt.

Add the flour, baking soda and salt combination to the banana puree mixture and blend together with the hand mixer again. (You’re getting your money’s worth from the hand mixer, eh?)

Chop the walnuts with a knife and add them to the batter.. Mix them in a bit by hand with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Pour the whole mess into your favorite greased 9″ x 5″ bread pan.

Place into a 300° pre-heated oven and bake for 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours (mine went closer to 1 ½ hours). You’ll know it’s done when a toothpick or sharp knife comes out clean when you poke it.

Note: If you don’t already have one, pick up an oven thermometer. My gas oven is a little old and can be anywhere from 25 to 50 degrees hotter than what the dial reads..

Let the loaf cool on a cooling rack for an hour or so, covered with a dish towel, before cutting into it. Then it’s ready to eat! mMmm.

Originally posted on October 30, 2005.

Being a huge fan of Italian food and pizza, I decided to make homemade calzones with Italian sausage, mozzarella cheese, and some herbs and veggies.

I used the pizza dough recipe I used in my “Tim’s Bitchin’ Pizza” recipe. And I also used organic ingredients where available, and things like fresh mozzarella and oregano.

Basic Instructions:

1. Make some pizza dough. (click here for my pizza dough recipe)
2. Divide ½ of pizza dough recipe into 4 equal pieces, then knead and form each chunk into a ball and let “rest” for 30 – 60 minutes.
3. Cut up and cook the Italian sausage until browned.
4. Chop the mince the other ingredients and produce.
5. Flatten out the dough balls and form into flat and thin pizzas.
6. Add some sauce and mozzarella, and add the ingredients, to the dough.
7. Close and crimp the edges well, and place onto a pizza stone in a preheated 475° – 500° oven.
8. Bake for 7 – 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Now onto the pictures for the rest!

Our basic ingredients are pizza dough, Italian sausage, fresh mozzarella cheese, garlic, green pepper, mushrooms, fresh oregano, olive oil and some pizza or spaghetti sauce.

I had made a batch of my pizza dough the night before and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight for 18 hours or so..

After punching it down I cut the dough in half, then cut one half into 4 individual pieces. I kneaded each and formed them into balls. I then put a dish towel over them and let them rest for 30 minutes or so.

While the dough balls were resting I cut up the sausage and got it ready for cooking..

Note: Don’t forget to remove the skin off the sausage if you bought whole like I did. You can also buy ground Italian sausage too if you want..

The sausage needs to be cooked before using it. I cooked the sausage in some olive oil in a pan, then set it aside in a bowl to drain on some paper towels. It should also be cooled down some before using it in the filling.

Then while the cooked sausage was cooling off I chopped up the pepper and mushrooms, minced a couple of cloves of fresh garlic, and chopped the fresh oregano.

By now the dough had rested enough, so I formed each ball like a tiny flat pizza. I also lightly brushed on some olive oil, leaving a ½ inch dry around the edges so we can crimp it closed later..

Add some sauce to ½ of the dough, then some slices of the mozzarella cheese, and a little of each of the rest of your ingredients.. I added a little more sauce on top (not pictured, so you can see the ingredients) along with some more slices of the mozzarella before closing.

Then pull the other ½ of the dough over the top. Fold over the edges a little and crimp them closed good.

I had preheated the oven to around 475° – 500° and gave it a good 30 minutes to an hour to get the pizza stone good and hot. Then, using a pizza peel, slid the calzone off onto the hot pizza stone. I baked them 2 at a time for about 7 – 10 minutes until they were golden brown.

Note: Dusting your pizza peel lightly with some semolina flour (semolina is the kind of flour used in ravioli pasta) will help the calzone slide off easily onto the hot pizza stone.. Sticking is bad, mm’k.

And here are the finished calzones! The only thing I think I would have done differently would be to use about double the amount of mozzarella cheese, and a little more sauce.